[Turnsky]

Originally posted by karajorma
I think Rockstar were idiots to deny that they had made the feature then turned it off. I think they were idiots to try to blame the mod community for it.

But Rockstar aren't really to blame if people are downloading mods that allow you to turn on a feature that they turned off. If your children are accessing the net to download this sort of thing then they could just as easily be downloading much ruder games. The solution as always is to know what your 17 year olds are doing rather than expecting your PC\TV\Local police force to act as their babysitters.

indeed, it's not that we're siding with rockstar per se.. but this "kind" of debate has been gone over before, with parents being largely ignorant of what their children buy when it comes to computer games.

and exactly, if your kids can download the 'hot coffee' mod, they can most certainly download pratically anything else beyond that..
parents oughta look after their own kids instead of *****ing about everything.. really.

[Rictor]

Originally posted by aldo_14
Games ratings exist for a good reason, especially with relation to younger, more impressionable children.

Are we talking like 8 year olds here, or what? What do you mean by "younger, more impressionable children"? Anyone over, say 14, ought to be trusted with pretty much anything. Listen, if you had lived in another time and place, you could already have been through a war or two and had kids before turning 18. If you believe that most teens aren't mature, could it be because you expect them not to be? They're certainly capable of it. I'll ask again: don't you remember you childhood? How frustrating it was that you couldn't be trusted to catch a of glimpse blood or, heaven forbid, a "dirty word". All the good stuff was unavailable because of overconcerned parents and the companies who cater to them. So now, a few years later, you're defending the same stance?

And besides, anyone who is capable of not only finding, but installing, a mod of this sort is surely capable of finding many worse things. It's unreasonable to expect that your child is somehow unable to enter the word "porn" into Google. It's absurd. The government comes down on Rockstar for making availble a pointy stick, while an average teenager is easily capable of finding themselves a nuke.

[delta_7890]

Originally posted by aldo_14
On the side; surely Wal Mart stocks 18 rated videos & dvds?

If you mean R-rated movies, then yes..but anything that is specifically "adult content" such as pornography?  No, none that I've seen, unless they hide it reaaaally well.  They also don't sell "adult magazines".  Hence, it makes perfect sense that they would not carry "adult video games".

[phreak]

Originally posted by aldo_14
On the side; surely Wal Mart stocks 18 rated videos & dvds?

No, last i heard they don't stock music with questionable (in their opinion) lyrical content.

[aldo_14]

I'm too tired to reply in depth to Rictors post, but I do believe the rating system does serve a purpose; I can remember what I was like at 14, etc, and believe there is a potential within that age to be more influenced than when older.  To me, the 15 rating is the most important one; I think under that age is when the highest chance of imitation will be.

A secondary concern is that simply by having a rating system it makes clear to kids, that this type of content is in some way bad; it encourages them to consider why this is, and thus act maturely.

Oh, and http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=ticket_to_hell